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Wasted effort Squandered opportunities spoil Schilling's clutch outing
Updated: Thursday November 01, 2001 5:02 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Curt Schilling could only watch helplessly. What would have been his most magnificent victory slipped away with one agonizing out remaining. Working on just three days' rest for the first time in his career, Schilling was on the brink of becoming the first pitcher to win five games in a postseason. He allowed one run on three hits, struck out nine and walked one in seven innings -- all for nothing. Tino Martinez's two-out home run off closer Byung-Hyun Kim in the ninth inning sent Game 4 of the World Series into extra innings and New York won 4-3 on Derek Jeter's homer in the 10th. Now Schilling must wait, watch and prepare for another start. The series is tied 2-2. If there is a Game 7 Sunday in Phoenix, he will get the call, again on three days' rest. Statistically, Schilling's Game 4 performance was a mirror image of his effort in Game 1 in Phoenix. Except this time, he had one more strikeout, and he didn't win.
Schilling stifled the Yankees with an exercise in efficiency -- 88 pitches, 63 of them strikes. He wasn't perfect. He allowed an opposite field homer to Shane Spencer to lead off the third inning and pitched out of jams in the sixth and seventh. Still, he was plenty good enough after Arizona finally broke through with two runs in the eighth to go ahead 3-1. The Diamondbacks seemed headed for a decisive 3-1 lead in the series until Kim gave up that first-pitch blast that set the notorious Yankee Stadium crowd into delirium. Schilling's effort might have gone down as one of the greatest ever in a World Series, a throwback to the days when three days' rest was not uncommon, especially considering the hostile Yankee Stadium setting. In the dugout between innings, Schilling sat by himself, as he always does. At one point, he buried his head in his hands, regaining what was left of his energy. Manager Bob Brenly acknowledged it was a big gamble to start Schilling on short rest, but he couldn't resist. Schilling had pestered his manager daily, telling him he was ready, that he had prepared on his off days as if he would be Wednesday's starter. Schilling retired the first six batters he faced. Then came the mistake to Spencer, whose home run barely made it inside the right field foul pole to put New York up 1-0. Yet the Yankees had led 1-0 in Game 1 too, and the Diamondbacks had rallied to win 9-1. Schilling retired the next eight he faced, four by strikeout. Mark Grace's upper-deck homer tied it at 1-1 in the fourth. But trouble brewed in the sixth. Scott Brosius led off with a double over the head of Steve Finley in center field. It was the Yankees' turn to squander a chance. Alfonso Soriano squared for a sacrifice bunt, then pulled the bat back for a called strike. He swung away on the next pitch and missed, then tried to bunt again but fouled it off for a strikeout. Jeter grounded out to first, advancing Brosius to third, but Paul O'Neill hit a weak grounder to Grace at first, and Schilling got to the base just in time to take the throw for the third out. Schilling walked to the mound one last time in the seventh. Bernie Williams singled, then Martinez walked. With runners on first and second and no one out, Jorge Posada grounded to second baseman Craig Counsell, and the Diamondbacks turned the double play. Williams made it to third, but Schilling struck out David Justice for the third time and the threat evaporated into the crisp night, just as the Arizona's victory would two innings later.
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